Phillies Sweep the Padres

One series can make a big difference. It was just a few days ago when the lowly Houston Astros swept the Phillies in four games. Three games later, the Phillies completed a sweep of their own against the first-place San Diego Padres. This series came down to the pitching, but the Phillies managed to score five runs for Cole Hamels in today’s 5-0 victory.

The Padres entered today’s game as one of the best fielding teams in baseball. After today’s game, that is hard to believe. The Friars committed four fielding errors. The Phillies took advantage of the mistakes, and tacked on five runs.

The first run came on an RBI single from Jimmy Rollins, but the big blow came off the bat of Mike Sweeney. Sweeney played in replace of Ryan Howard, who had a scheduled off day. In the seventh inning, Sweeney ripped a liner over the right field wall for a two-run shot. It was Sweeney’s first home run as a Phillie, and his first in three months. Later on, Jayson Werth added an insurance run, smashing a home run of his own.

One run was all Cole Hamels needed. Receiving run support was a new thing for him, as he picked up the victory. Hamels shut down the Padres over eight innings, surrendering only four hits. It was surprising that Hamels finished the day without walking a batter, because he had a high pitch count and often fell deep into counts. Hamels struck out six.

If the Phillies ever needed a sweep, it was this one. With the Braves rallying for a win, this game became more and more important. This sweep could add new life to the Phillies, especially after that horrific series with Houston.

Jeff,
We scored pretty well considering that Petco is THE worst hitting park in the league! And swept the series. That park is 30th in almost every hitting category, and 1st in almost every pitching stat. It’s no wonder they have such good pitching, can you imagine our big three pitching in that place 81 games a year. Doc would be a 30 game winner, and the other two 20-25. The Padres have the worst offense because they play 81 there.
We did exactly what we needed to do, manufacture runs with JRoll Friday, Vic yesterday, and then today Sweeney and Werth come up with long balls. I’m proud of these guys today, they played a weekend of PLAYOFF like baseball, and won it all.

“It was surprising that Hamels finished the day without walking a batter, because he had a high pitch count and often fell deep into counts.”

I think you meant to add “in the first two innings” to that sentence. Either that or you didn’t watch the game. Sure, if you just look at the box score, he threw a fairly high number of pitches over 8 innings, but almost a full half of those pitches (50, I believe) came in the first two innings. After that he locked in, and didn’t allow so much as a baserunner after the 3rd inning. Really great to see how dominant Cole has been for much of this year. Many teams would love to have a staff ace pitching the way he has been. We’re lucky enough to have him as a number 2. That is a good feeling.

The second game against the Dodgers is versus Monasterios, who was an A-ball pitcher in the Phillies’ farm system until the Mets picked him in this year’s Rule 5 draft and traded him to the Dodgers for cash. Monasterios hasn’t gone past 5 innings in either of his starts since coming off the DL.

Al, you are correct. Monasterios is a rookie and is facing KK but, there are 2 strikes that might be in our favor:
1) his ERA is average, not terrible (remember, the worse the ERA, the more trouble the Phils have)
2) KK is due for a decent game

Don’t worry about what the Braves do, as long as the Phils win we are in control. Remember, we face the Braves 6 more times.

Andrew, regarding Richards throwing to bases; he balks. I don’t know what the Umps are looking at, but that front foot moves towards home. It’s not even debatable. Just because that’s his “move”, doesn’t mean it should be allowed.

This was touched on the Post game show but something i was already thinking about. This is assuming that our front 3 pitchers continue the trend. We need our 4th and 5th guys to step it up a notch. Blanton has been looking better we need him to be the 3/4 starter he was brought in here for. While Kyle well Kendrick is Kyle which is Dr Jekyl Mr.Hyde if we can get in a few quality starts from him it will be all the much better. By this time it has become obvious I even briefly mention this before pitching has saved our season. The offense as a whole continues to struggle The Big Piece is struggling something fierce. Chase hasnt been the magic bullet most folk expected. We can only hope these two come around before its too late. I believe they will be no collapse by the Braves as some had mentioned. Yes they are an average team with good pitching. However they continue to fight and fight and make timely hits. Simply put it and I know this sounds cliche but it might come down to who wants it more. The best most talented team doesnt always win.

The Braves might not have come back had Josh Johnson gone an extra inning, he had 103 pitches after 6. Meanwhile Cole Hamels had 102 after seven and pitched an extra inning. If you know your pen is bad (florida) keep your ace in as long as possible.

Why not just let Hamels finish? He was sailing. This idiotic pitch count BS is destroying pitching and baseball in general. I’d have never taken him out. This pitch count crap has likely ruined Strasberg’s career. Don’t let him throw, baby his arm, and you ruin it. And that’s exactly what happened. Anybody have any idea how many pitches Carlton threw in 1972? Bunning in ’64? Short in 67? Gibson or Marichal in 68? Seaver in ’69? Of course not, no one counted because there was no need to. This pitch count idiocy was started by USA Today and a promotional effort to give its sports section something “extra” its competitors didn’t have and now it has permeated the game and is ruining it. And Charlie ought to know better. There was no reason whatsoever Hamels shouldn’t have finished today.

That hes an old phillies farm hand and a skell is like double dipping. Maybe thats a good thing. Its either a no hitter or hopefully we will hit the guy. This is the kind of guy that routinely pitches his best game of the season or even career vs the fightins.

After the Phillies had lost the first 3 to the Astros last week, I had said that to get to 93-94 wins they basically needed to win 2 of 3 the rest of the way. I also said that they needed to win that last game vs the Stros and then 2 of 3 in San Diego.

Well, 4 games into it, they are on pace. Didn’t win that Astros game…but the sweep in SD evened it out. Baseball’s a funny game that way. I never saw EITHER sweep coming….but it happens.

32 games left. Need to keep the pressure on. The pitching is awesome right now. The bats will come around, but this time of year, it’s all about pitching anyway, so low scoring, tight games are gonna happen.

Josh Johnson had a five run lead when he was pulled; thus the shorter outing. There’s no real sense in overworking the guy when ANY bullpen should be able to do the job with that kind of lead. The Marlins’ relief also wasn’t helped any by errors.

The Marlins are a lousy team right now, and I’m surprised they won any games in their series vs. Atlanta.

Hold onto your seats folks. After the Dodgers series, a makeup game with the Rockies (we need to win that), the Phils start a homestand vs the Brewers for 3 then the remainder of the month is vs NL East teams. Oh yes, include the final 3 games of the season played in October, in Atlanta.

No one in the NL East has shown dominance in this division, even the last place team could finish with a .500 or near to it record vs their own division. The teams are so close within their own division, the fact that the Phils and Braves are now the only legitimate threats to win the division, any one of the other teams could play a significant role as spoiler.

The Phils have their last 25 games of the season vs East teams.
The Braves have 25 games left vs East teams (not to mention a brief interruption of a 4 game home series vs the Cards who are desperately clinging on to playoff aspirations in their own division – which by the way, the Cards are 4-0 vs the Braves this year).

The Phils are 25-22 vs the East teams
The Braves are 25-22 vs the East teams.
It’s just too close to call without factoring emotion into it. Who will step up?

The Phils are 73-57 – if they go 20-12 the rest of the way, a winning percentage over .625 they will win 93 games.

That would mean the Braves would have to come close to a meltdown in the heat of the race. The Braves record is 75-55 – if 93 games were to do it for the Phils, the Braves would have to finish the season 17-15, or, if they do 1 better and finish with 93 wins, that would mean the Phils would have to win 4 out of their 6 games with the Braves to finish at a 9-9 record. If they wind up with the same W-L record and tied in head to head, what is the next determining factor?

OK, I am thinking ahead of myself I know – but this is it folks, time to turn it on. A surge by any of these teams (like Howard or Utley setting the world on fire, PLEASE!) will probably be the difference here.

I agree 100% Chuck. If Ryan does not snap out of this mental funk, he may not reach 30 hrs, the Phils will struggle to make the playoffs and boy, will the Nation go bonkers –

No signs of Chase or Ryan in the month of August – none. 3 hrs and 8 rbi (so far) in the entire month of August for the loon Werth and the Phils are still in it.

Jroll barely hitting .250, Vic doing just about the same, Ibby was 1 for 13 vs the Pads, Jwerth was 1 for 10 but scored 4 runs, even our beloved Poly was 2 for 13 vs the Pads and has 0 hr for the month of August and look where the Phils are.

This has been a crazy season. The Phils are in the thick of this race for none of the reasons we believed they would be. And we’re still hoping for a wakeup – we know it can happen and what the results will be when it does.

I may be stating the obvious, but the division winner will probably be decided in the six games remaining between the Phillies and the Braves – possibly even that last weekend in Atlanta. It should be fun…

We stay on course from now to the end of the season (though I’d like to move within a game of Atlanta before we play them) and it will truly be Phillies versus Braves for the Division. Face-to-face. It would be great if we could tie or pass them at home.

Either way, the Phillies are the masters of their own playoff destiny right now. They just have to step up. They’re two games down and have six games left against the division leader.

No doubt the pressure is on – but who isn’t looking primarily at the Big Piece now? Like Andrew said if Ryan is on, the pitching might not have to be near perfect (OK, 1,2 & 3) which relieves pressure off of them; the BP does can be human; and perhaps Jimmy, Vic and Utley won’t press so hard and will get on base in front of him.

Boy Cole is just amazing this year. That cutter has been very effective and his fastball has life on it. He battled the first two innings then went into shut down mode. I think having the two Roys here have helped him settle down. He should have 16 wins this year.

Howard scares me. I know he is in a funk but his power numbers keep declining. Maybe the weight he took off. I hope this is not the trend in the coming seasons. Ultey looks lost. Even before the injury. We just have to keep fighting to the end.

I wouldn’t worry about Howard’s power numbers seeming to decline, he’s going to finish the season with more power like he always has. I have a feeling he’ll finish one either side of 32 which will be good considering the injury, we just expect more. Long-term his power isn’t going to fall-off the map like many predict and he is going to be in sight of the 500 club.

One thing that just popped up in my mind is Doc and the Cy after JJ’s numbers slipping a bit.

Doc is 3rd in wins just 1 behind the leaders, 1st in ERA, 1st in Ks, 2nd in WHIP, 1st in complete games and innings, 1st by over double in K/BB… I think Doc may just have a realistic chance at winning the Cy this year.

They are making fun of the Philly fans on some Padres website. Saying yea we got swept but where would you rather live. Philly or San D. Then they talk about surfing. Hang tough dude. They should be worried about there offense. Eckstien is a little nat that cant field and average hitter.

I’m with Chuck, I’m more worried about Utley. Howard, like Werth, goes through periods of nothingness. It seems to be part of their games. Frustrating for him, frustrating for fans to watch, maybe even debilitating for the team as a whole, but I tend to doubt that. They’ve found a way through it other yrs and they’re doing it this yr too. As pros they should’ve learned by now not to depend on the play of one guy to pull them through. Could it weigh on them whether they want it to or not – of course. They’re dealing with it in any case.

Utley though seemed as though he was beginning to hit one here, one there & then stopped again. I don’t know. Maybe he needs a hug from Sweeney.

Re: Howard’s age: He’ll be 31 in Nov. I’m not sure how much age has to do with anything. I think more depends on how the player takes care of himself, how he eats, stays in shape, genetics, healing capabilities, etc. Howard (11/79), Utley (12/78), Werth (5/79), Rollins (11//78), Victorino (11/80). The age differences are really negligible.

Right now the pitching is carrying this team, even with the sweep, the runs per game was pretty bad, Padres had 4 errors leading 2 of them. But I think the hitting will eventually start up again. And if the pitchers can stay this dominant there should be no stopping this team in September. Still a bit frustrating to watch some of these ab’s by Cole and Vic and Jayson. But less so when they pull out a win

i will take doc, oswalt, and hamels over any team in the playoffs. these guys can shut down any team. our offense can hit good pitching when we are going good. we have been there and done that. those teams will fold in the playoffs. lets just get there and have some fun. we will be the team to beat. we need this game tonight to start the tone. doc is on call tonight. he was good but not sharp in his last outing. you know what that means. he will come out big tonight.

I think we all pretty much agree om 2 key issues
– pitching has carried us to this point, we are right on the verge of taking this division and its because of not only the great starting pitching but the BP as well
– point 2; if Howard at the least, moreso Howard, Utley and anyone else (be it Rollins, Victorino, Ibanez or Poly) catch afire – this team will be unstoppable.

Shag – Not sure it matters what their ABs look like. They’re figuring out ways to get the job done. The tandem team of Vic and JDub in SD got us a couple of runs (together they won the 2nd game). I don’t care how they get on base, just do it. Werth walked more than once in this series and he was hit once. When Vic got a hit behind him, then we were able to get more than one run. Fine with me.